More from Reljic On His Surgery, Unexpected Recovery, and His Role Model

On His First Effort in the UFC:
“Honestly, I think my first performance in (the) UFC was OK. I
think I performed OK. I displayed a little bit in everything but I
wasn't happy in my technique and I didn't display everything I had.
So, I'm going to do it now.”

On His Improvements While in Recovery:
“Things happen for a reason. I'm a much smarter athlete now than I
was before. I'm not overtraining myself. I don't go crazy anymore
in trainings. I know when it's time to stop in trainings. I hurt
myself because I was pushing too hard. When I train I like to go
100 percent and you can't always train 100 percent. You have to
look after your body. You have to look after how you recover:
dieting, stretching, yoga, meditating. I do all that now. I had
some good people around me back home in Croatia. I have a very good
teacher at home that worked with me on some stuff. Like I said I'm
much more calm in my head. I know what I want and I know how to get
there. I don't rush into anything and I'm a much smarter athlete,
that's one thing that I can say so like I said, things happen for a
reason so I don't know. Maybe it was meant to be. I have no
idea.”

Thought Process Coming Back to the UFC:
“Not many people come back from an injury like that, but like I
said, I had good healthcare. I did some stuff. You just feel when
your body can do something and you feel when it can't so I felt I
could. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life thinking to
myself, ‘What if? What if I try? What if I didn't try?’ Doctors
told me that it’s not safe but I'm the type of guy that follows my
instincts and my instincts told me to go on and to come back. I
think that's where I belong. I like to fight. I like to train.
That's all that really matters to me. I don't care about anything
else. That's all that matters.

Why Surgery Was Necessary: “If you feel
the pain all the time and you don't feel good, the back is
something you don't want to mess with. You could end up in a
wheelchair. It's not like a knee or elbow or any other injury. It's
the worst injury that can happen to you. Everything is there. Your
back, your spine is your life. If you mess up with that then you're
done. Quite frankly, I'm not the type of person that would like to
end up in a wheelchair. I think I would go crazy and I just felt
that I could do it. That's it.”

Where Does He Stand in the UFC Middleweight
Division? “I've got to be honest with you. I don't really
care for that. I think the UFC management and the managers are
there to think. My job is to fight. I respect every fighter that
there is in my division. I respect everyone who ever stepped in
that Octagon. All the fighters are the same to me and quite frankly
I see myself as a decent fighter but that's about it.”

What's His Ultimate Goal? “I would like
to keep that a secret. People have always thought that I was weird
and a little crazy ever since I was a kid. I had some weird goals
in my head. I don't really like to talk about it too much. I enjoy
fighting. I enjoy doing what I do. That's the ultimate goal for me.
Stay there, give everything I have and in the end one day I'm going
to say I gave my best. I really did everything I could. What
happens I would think happens for a reason. I'm kind of a weird guy
but I have my beliefs and I just like to believe I gave everything
I have and I used my talent properly. I invested all of my talent
into this. If I lose I'm going to say I lost because the guy was
better. Simple as that. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to
make excuses when someone beats me. I'm going to say I lost because
the guy was better. Nothing else. I have the ultimate goal. The
ultimate goal is to go as far as I can go. That's about it. The
goal is to just go as far as I can go.”

Whom Do You Want to Emulate? “I enjoy
watching Georges
St. Pierre. There's a whole bunch of fighters I like. I enjoy
watching Anderson
Silva. Rodrigo Nogueira is actually one of my favorite
fighters. He's the reason I got into this sport is because he was
like a role model for me. I was watching him when I was a kid when
I was 18 or 19 years old when he was fighting in Pride. I was
always admiring to him and his capacity of taking all those punches
and kept getting back out of the knockout and still be able to make
his opponent. There's a whole bunch of people I look at as role
models and I've been trying to not emulate. But I learn a lot from
those people. Rich
Franklin is also my favorite. I have a lot of people I look up
to.”